GateHouse seeks more warrants in Aaron Hernandez murder inquiry

For the second time in three weeks, The Patriot Ledger, The Taunton Daily Gazette and their parent company, GateHouse Media, Inc. are trying to make public impounded court records in the murder investigation involving former New England Patriot tight end Aaron Hernandez.

For the second time in three weeks, The Patriot Ledger, The Taunton Daily Gazette and their parent company, GateHouse Media, Inc. are trying to make public impounded court records in the murder investigation involving former New England Patriot tight end Aaron Hernandez.

Attorneys representing the newspapers and media organizations The Associated Press, Cable News Network( CNN), The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, The Eagle-Tribune Newspaper Company, North Andover and WPRI TV, Providence, R.I., filed a motion Friday in Attleboro District Court seeking to lift the court’s impoundment of two arrest warrants and all unreleased search warrant materials in the case against Hernandez.

The former Patriot has been charged in the killing of Odin Lloyd, 27 of Boston, on June 17.

Last week, Attleboro District Court Judge Daniel O’Shea granted the newspapers’ June 27 motion to lift the impoundment of certain search warrant materials, resulting in the release of eight search warrants in the Hernandez investigation. However, GateHouse and the other media outlets contend in their latest motion that other search warrants and two arrest warrants remain impounded.

The newspapers’ latest motion is supported by an affidavit filed Friday in Attleboro District Court by David Linton, a reporter for The Sun Chronicle. On Wednesday, Linton was denied access to warrant materials in the Hernandez case and was told they were impounded in their entirety.

“At the heart of this motion is the public’s presumptive rights of access to the judicial process in this Commonwealth and the records relevant thereto, and its corresponding right to be fully and fairly informed about matters of significant public interest,” the motion states.

Michael Grygiel of Greenberg Traurig LLP in Boston, representing the newspapers, requested the hearing, which is now scheduled for Wednesday July 24.

Hernandez, 23, has pleaded innocent to first-degree murder and weapons charges in the slaying of Lloyd. Two other men, Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace, have since been charged as accomplices in Lloyd’s murder.

Lloyd was shot June 17 in an industrial park about a mile from Hernandez’s home in North Attleboro. Hernandez, released by the Patriots within hours of his June 26 arrest, is being held without bail.

Patrick Ronan may be reached at pronan@ledger.com or follow on Twitter @PRonan_Ledger.